Snowy Anna +additional image from this morning

[AlanLichty]

Vancouver is getting it's first snowstorm in a couple of years tonight and I watched an Anna's hummingbird darting back and frost between a feeder outside of my office and the top of a huckleberry so I grabbed my camera. I posted one shot of this female at the end of the Winged Wednesday thread earlier but I reworked that one and another capture to clean up some of the noise. These were handheld shots with fading light and ISO 5000 and the lens I had on was a 24-70mm with no image stabilization so is was a good day to own Denoise and Sharpen AI.

The hummingbird didn't seem particularly pleased with the weather conditions.

C&C always welcome.

Edit - new image taken this morning after more snow overnight as well as more falling now. This perch in the arborvitae is less than 2 feet from the huckleberry perch shown above.

 

[Ben Egbert]

A posing hummingbird is rare, and with a western red cedar as backdrop is also nice.

 

[AlanLichty]

A posing hummingbird is rare, and with a western red cedar as backdrop is also nice.

Thanks Ben - The evergreen is arborvitae. I actually see hummers perching in the arborvitae regularly so they can guard the feeder from interlopers. The feeder is only about 3 feet away from this perch. The Anna's tend to be highly territorial about "their" feeders. She is out there again this morning but there is too much snow on the huckleberry so she is up in the branches of the arborvitae which makes her much harder to see.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice set Alan. Haven't seen many hummers with snow. Keep your shovels handy for this weekend.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice set Alan. Haven't seen many hummers with snow. Keep your shovels handy for this weekend.

Thanks Jameel - the Anna's hummers stick around all year in our area so not a first time seeing this at all. We have 4 hummingbird feeders around our house and right now there is one hummer "guarding" each of them. they can get quite aggressive about others trying to use "their" feeder.

We already have our shovels out. we have about 4-5" on the ground now and it's still coming down. This is supposed to keep coming until it turns to rain on Sunday.

 

[Debbie Stahre]

Thanks Jameel - the Anna's hummers stick around all year in our area so not a first time seeing this at all. We have 4 hummingbird feeders around our house and right now there is one hummer "guarding" each of them. they can get quite aggressive about others trying to use "their" feeder.

We already have our shovels out. we have about 4-5" on the ground now and it's still coming down. This is supposed to keep coming until it turns to rain on Sunday.

Alan, how are you keeping the feeders from freezing?

 

[AlanLichty]

Alan, how are you keeping the feeders from freezing?

Normally we don't have to - the Portland/Vancouver area has fairly moderate temperatures and our normal low temps in the winter stay above freezing. It's been a couple of years since we had enough snow to need to pull out a snow shovel and just as long since we had daytime highs that stayed below freezing.

My wife keeps tabs on the feeders and will bring them in to thaw overnight if it gets too cold. She doesn't completely fill the feeders - that way the sugar water gets changed regularly and she does have spare feeders so she can just swap in a new one and the old one comes back inside to get a full cleaning.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Alan, these are so cool and so different. Nice job capturing them. And like Ben it seems so rare to see them actually sitting on a branch not flapping their wings!

 

[AlanLichty]

Hey Alan, these are so cool and so different. Nice job capturing them. And like Ben it seems so rare to see them actually sitting on a branch not flapping their wings!

Thanks - I am actually shooting these from inside my office through double pane windows so a slightly different kind of bird watching blind. I see them resting in the arborvitae all the time looking out my window.

 

[Debbie Stahre]

Thanks - I am actually shooting these from inside my office through double pane windows so a slightly different kind of bird watching blind. I see them resting in the arborvitae all the time looking out my window.

Nice clear shots for having been shot though dbl panes...

 

[Jim Dockery]

Nice shots Alan, #1 is my fav. - I really like the snow streaks. I've got a few at our feeder regularly, but too far to get good shots of their perch in a nearby maple. I bring our feeder in at night when it's cold like this.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice shots Alan, #1 is my fav. - I really like the snow streaks. I've got a few at our feeder regularly, but too far to get good shots of their perch in a nearby maple. I bring our feeder in at night when it's cold like this.

Thanks Jim - my wife will bring some of ours in if the temps drop into the low 20's or high teens but they don't freeze with mid 20's and above. The feeder outside my office that this little lady is guarding appears to be partially frozen but must still have some liquid in it since she is still hanging out on top of the huckleberry and darting back and forth for more shots of sugar water. All 4 of our feeders are fairly close to our house so they won't get quite as cold as if they were out in the middle of the yard and this one is only about 2 feet from the house.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Vancouver is getting it's first snowstorm in a couple of years tonight and I watched an Anna's hummingbird darting back and frost between a feeder outside of my office and the top of a huckleberry so I grabbed my camera. I posted one shot of this female at the end of the Winged Wednesday thread earlier but I reworked that one and another capture to clean up some of the noise. These were handheld shots with fading light and ISO 5000 and the lens I had on was a 24-70mm with no image stabilization so is was a good day to own Denoise and Sharpen AI.

The hummingbird didn't seem particularly pleased with the weather conditions.

View attachment 36352

View attachment 36353

C&C always welcome.

Edit - new image taken this morning after more snow overnight as well as more falling now. This perch in the arborvitae is less than 2 feet from the huckleberry perch shown above.

View attachment 36355

When you have a solution of dissolved solids in water, this causes the water to freeze at a lower temperature and boil at a higher temperature than normal. That is how salt melts ice on your sidewalk. The depression in the freezing point is a function of how much sugar is in the water. The greater amount of sugar, the lower the freezing point. By the way, Alan nice images.